20 Then the Lord said, “Because ^fthe outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, 21 ^gI will go down to see whether they have done altogether¹ according to the outcry that has come to me. And if not, ^hI will know.”

22 ⁱSo the men turned from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham ^jstill stood before the Lord. 23 Then Abraham drew near and said, ^k“Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24 Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city. Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it? 25 Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, ^lso that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! ^mShall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” 26 And the Lord said, ⁿ“If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”